Fighting Back
by Moira-girl
Summary: After the war with V the wizarding world decides to reveal itself to muggles so that they are not taken by surprise if another V were to rise up.  Soon the wizards learn that they aren't the only ones capable of prejudice.  Keeps to book cannon. next gen.
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: I haven't posted a fanfic in a while but this idea would not leave me alone. I've only ever completed oneshots, but this time I have an outline and everything. It will be ten chapters give or take a few and hope to be updating on a semi regular basis. I've won nanowrimo twice now so I think I can handle this, although this is the first time I'll edit as I go. I hope you enjoy, I try not to change any of the book cannon._

**Chapter 1: Hogwarts Express**

"Scorp!" squealed Rose, abandoning her little brother as she ran to embrace her friend. She hadn't seen him since school had let out last spring and she'd missed him.

"Rose?" asked Hugo, eyes wide, "isn't that the boy Daddy said to stay away from?"

"What Dad doesn't know won't hurt him," she answered with a shrug and a grin.

"You're in so much trouble!"

"Not if you keep your big mouth shut," answered the Rose, now glaring and holding her wand menacingly under her brothers nose.

"That's true," he answered, looking up and grinning sheepishly, "I want to see if I can find Jake."

Rose rolled her eyes as her brother hurried off in search of his friend. Jake was one of the few kids Hugo knew who wasn't related to him. They'd been close friends since they were on the same community quiditch team. They were both starting their first year at Hogwarts and were hoping to be in the same house.

"So how was your summer?" asked Rose, returning her attention to her friend.

"Pretty good, we went on holiday to Egypt, but with the travel restrictions we weren't able to do much," he answered with a shrug, "you?"

"Same old, same old, quiditch with the cousins, helping Uncle George come up with some new stuff for his shop, pretty fun. Have you seen Al yet?" she asked, standing on tippy toes to scan the heads for her cousin.

"No, you guys didn't come together?"

"Al!" called Rose, ignoring Scorpius and running up to her cousin, giving him a massive hug even though she'd seen him yesterday.

"Hey Rose," Albus grumbled, trying not to lose his balance.

"Al! How was your summer?" asked Scorpius smiling and extending his hand for a hand shake. A much manlier greeting.

"Not bad. We had to cancel our trip to Paris though," he answered with a frown.

"The travel restrictions?" asked Scorpius sympathetically.

"Yah, they suddenly required ridiculous amounts of paper work to cross the border. My parents decided to just cancel the trip."

"We had the same problem. We were already in Egypt when the new travel document requirements were put into place. We had to stay out of the country a week longer then we planned. Mum and Dad had to go over the paper work twice before it went through."

"It's a bit strange that the bill went through so quietly," commented Albus with an air of suspicion.

"I agree," answered Scorpius, nodding solemnly.

"I don't think we have to worry about it while we're at Hogwarts," chimed in Rose with a shrug.

"That is true."

The three friends chatted happily as they made their way to an empty car down further down the train. They were waiting for the sweets cart when four first years came bustling into their compartment.

"Can we share your cabin?" asked Lilly, she was flushed as though she'd been laughing and her friends looked equally out of sorts.

"Is there no where else?" asked Rose with a groan, spotting her little brother among the group.

"James wouldn't let us share with him," answered Lilly, wrinkling her nose.

"Fine," sighed the girl heavily, making it clear that she'd rather they didn't.

"Thanks cuz," grinned Lilly, elbowing Rose with a broad, fake cheerful smile. The two girls had always gotten along, but they also enjoyed ribbing each other.

"Hey Lil'," greeted Albus, scooting over to make room for his sister and her friends on his bench.

"Hey Sev," she answered with a smile as she took the seat he offered her and then some, shoving her older brother into the window.

"Jake, I didn't know you were starting this year," said Scorpius, turning all the attention in the room to poor Jake Longbottom.

"M-my birthday's the day before the cut off," he answered, nervous with all the eyes on him.

"Ah, what house do you want to be in?" asked Scorpius, trying to make things less awkward by addressing all the first years across from him, but all attention was still on Jake.

"I want to be in Gryffindor, like my dad," he answered, eyeing the snake on Scorpius' school robes nervously, as though he expected to be thrown off the train for wanting to be in a rival house.

"That makes sense," answered Scorpius with a polite nod.

"I want to be in Gryffindor too," answered Lilly with a huge grin, "Uncle George says it's the only house worth being in."

"I don't know where I want to be," answered a shy girl sitting between Lilly and Hugo, "but Lilly says I should be in Gryffindor with her."

"The hat will sort you, not Lilly," stated Al, shooting a glare at his sister who only smiled innocently.

"What about you Hugo?" asked Scorpius, turning his attention to his friend's brother.

"Gryffindor of course," he answered but he seemed distracted and was staring at Scorpius with a mix of awe and fear, "are you really a Malfoy?"

"Hugo, shut up," demanded Rose, kicking her brother.

The kids talked amiably for a stretch of time. The train started to pull into Hogsmead station and all the first years were suddenly extremely nervous. They were summoned to Hagrid, and, after a few parting words of encouragement from the older students, made their way to the lake. The older students rushed to the thestral drawn coaches and chatted excitedly about the upcoming feast. By the time they reached the castle sorting was about to start. Al waved at his dad who was sitting in his spot at the head table. As potions master he'd shown up a week before classes started. Harry waved back to his son discreetly before motioning for him to go to his table. He grinned and made his way to the Slytherin table with his best friends Rose and Scorpius.

Harry shook his head. He knew he should tell Ron that Rose was friends with Scorpius, but he didn't want to be bearer of bad news. All thoughts of Rose and Scorpius ran from Harry's mind as McGonagall ushered in the newest batch of first years. He leaned forward in anticipation as he spotted Hugo and Lilly among the new students. He knew that as a professor he should try not to show favoritism, but as he glanced down the table all the other professors were smiling knowingly. He grinned back sheepishly and then turned his attention back to the hat as sorting began.

The hat sang it's song and everyone in the hall murmured about his newest advice. The hat had discussed the rising tensions that were felt everywhere and the need for open mindedness and unity in the face of danger. Then the sorting began. There were many first years to be sorted, more than usual, but tensions were highest as the youngest Potter took her seat.

"Ah, another Potter," whispered the hat in Lilly's ear, "I see you are very confident and eager to take on the world. Your brothers are in Gryffindor and Slytherin, but you think you will do well where ever I place you, interesting. I must say few students are brave enough to be willing to go to any house, nor are most students as ambitious as you are. Very interesting, but I believe you will do best in, GRYFFINDOR!"

Lilly was beaming as the hat was lifted off her head and she bounced over to the appropriated table. James waved at her to sit with him, but she stuck her nose in the air and made her way to join the other first years. She cheered along with the other students as other students were sorted. When Hugo took his seat she held her breath and leaned forward in her chair.

"This seems to be the year for repeat," whispered the hat in Hugo's ear, "another Weasley. I see you are very nervous about being here, but you are confident you've inherited your mother's intelligence, a trait that will serve you well here. Your love of learning would serve you well in Ravenclaw."

_No! Gryffindor please!_ begged Hugo silently, he didn't want to apart from all his family.

"Ah, I see you are close to your family, loyalty is always admirable. If you're sure this is what you want…yes? Alright then, better be, GRYFFINDOR!"

Hugo all but feinted with relief as the hat was removed from his head. He walked stiffly to his table and plopped down in the first empty seat he found. There were a few people between himself and Lilly, but she shouted her congratulations to him anyway. He grinned up at her, but he felt sick to his stomach. He was worried that because he had asked the hat to put him in this house he wouldn't fit in, but he had really wanted to be with his family. A few students later the sorting was over and feast began. Then it was over soon then he expected and he found himself looking around the Gryffindor tower in awe before being hustled up to his room where he promptly fell asleep.

"I'm telling you Headmaster, things are not going well," urged Harry, pacing in front of McGonagall's desk. The Snape portrait on the wall behind her rolled his eyes and the Dumbledore portrait's eye's twinkled with amusement.

"Harry, you have made your concerns quite clear," snapped McGonagall, pinching the bridge of her nose in irritation.

"I'm not the only one. Hermione sees it too. Something bad is coming. The papers reflect mistrust and mounting forces that indicate plans for war!"

"We have no evidence of who this war is going to be with."

"We will be directly affected. I just _know _it."

"Potter, when will you learn that you cannot simply _know_ something?" drawled the Snape portrait from the wall, no longer able to keep silent.

"Harry, I'll keep an eye out, but there is nothing more I can do," answered McGonagall, shooting a glare at Snape's portrait, "Go get some rest. Classes start tomorrow."

"But."

"Harry, go."

Harry sighed, but sensed that he wasn't going to get anywhere that evening and left the office. He was convinced things were going to get much worse before they got any better, and with that bleak thought he climbed into his bed and fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's Note: Yay, somewhat actiony! I promise it will pick up more in the next two chapters, bare with me._

**Trouble in the Air**

"Well that's not good," muttered Scorpius into his morning toast as he scanned the Daily Profit.

"What is it?" asked Rose.

"Another reasonable restriction law from the muggles. Now wizards aren't allowed within 100ft of an institution that caters exclusively to muggle children 5 years or younger."

"Those don't make any sense to me. Why wouldn't they want magical assistance in their work place? Not to mention that it is nearly impossible to tell the difference between a wizard and a muggle unless the wizard is performing magic. These laws are unenforceable," grumbled Rose, stuffing half a waffle into her mouth.

"My dad says that sometimes people are scared of things they can't explain, and muggles have a difficult time explaining magic," answered Al, taking a bite out of an apple as he scanned one of the sections of the paper that Scorpius had disregarded.

"The ministry should have never allowed muggles to know about the wizarding world," sniffed Rose.

"You know why they told them. They didn't want muggles to be defenseless if another Voldemort came to power," answered Scorpius, still distracted by his paper.

"Well they haven't exactly embraced the knowledge."

"They don't need to," answered Al with a shrug, and then he changed the subject, "So what do you have to do today?"

"I was supposed to work on a project with that annoying Hufflepuff, Tina, but that's not going to happen," grumbled Rose.

"Why not?" asked Scorpius, folding up his paper and putting it aside.

"Her parents pulled her out of school last weekend. They're muggles and they decided they didn't want their precious baby exposed to us evil wizards."

"Didn't Greg get pulled out for the exact same reason?"

"Yah, a lot of muggle borns are getting pulled out. I asked Juliet, she's a half-blood Ravenclaw, and she said that when she was home over break there was a lot of anti-wizard propaganda on the news," explained Rose, leaning in closer to her friends to share her gossip more privately, "The media was saying that the way we get our powers is through ancient pacts with the devil and all kinds of crazy stuff. They made us out to be devil worshipers who sacrifice cats and the first borns of our enemies to some medieval source of our power. The poor mudbloods are stuck in the middle."

"Rose!" exclaimed Al, shocked by her use of the term mudblood, "your mom is muggle born."

"Grandma and Grandpa Granger are a different _kind_ of muggle," answered Rose, making a dismissive motion with her hand.

"I don't know, it all seems pretty bad to me," answered Scorpius, "The muggles don't like us and I don't think we should have told them."

"I agree with you, but my dad says it will only be a matter of time before the muggles get used to the idea of wizards and he might be right, he did grow up with the worst kind of muggles, but I don't know. He _does_ tend to see the good in people when it might not be there after all."

"There isn't much we can do about it really," shrugged Scorpius, "so we might as well not worry about it too much, but we should keep it in the back of our minds."

The three agreed and the subject turned to lighter issues of roommates and other school related dilemmas. The three were about to stand and head out to the grounds to enjoy their first Saturday back at school after a week of classes when Headmaster McGonagall stood and called the student population's attention to herself.

"Students, I have an announcement to make!" she called shrilly over the din of students who hadn't noticed her call for attention. She waited a moment as the great hall quieted before she continued, "In light of some recent events we are going to be having an assembly this evening after dinner. I must advise you that attendance is mandatory for all students. Prefects will ensure that every student is present. Assuming student cooperation the assembly should not take too much of your time. Have a good day."

"Well that was odd," muttered Al, looking to his two friends who agreed with him.

"What do you think that was all about Al?" asked Bartholomew, one of Al's roommates.

"I dunno, my dad hasn't said anything lately, although I think he's been avoiding me."

"Sounds awfully sketch to me."

"Me too, I'll see if I can catch my dad at some point today."

"Give me a heads up if you hear anything."

"Will do," answered Al as he and his friends stood and made their way to the grounds for some fresh air.

"You know I'd rather be doing this then working on that project after all," announced Rose as she skipped a rock on the lake.

"You're going to be regretting this on Wednesday night when you have to franticly finish it," pointed out Scorpius as he doodled in the soft sand at the lake's edge with a stick.

"I'll do it before then."

Scorpius was about to answer back sarcastically when a roaring noise in the sky above them drew everyone's attention.

"Merlin's balls, what is that!" exclaimed Scorpius as the loud noise seemed to come from all around.

"There!" shouted Al, pointing to a point in the sky, "it's a muggle plane!"

"Has a muggle plane ever flown over Hogwarts before?" asked Rose in awe.

"I don't think so."

As the plane flew over the campus the grounds fell into silence, then the noise of the roaring engines were replaced with the confused chatter of every student on the grounds.

"That looked like a fighter plane," stated Rose, watching the place where the plane had disappeared.

"I know, I don't like this," grumbled Al.

Just as the students were falling back into whatever they'd been doing before the plane appeared the roaring began again and the plane did a second pass of the campus. Once the plane had disappeared the chatter was even louder than it had been before.

"I think I want to see if I can't find Prof. Potter," announced Al, turning in the direction of campus.

"That's not a half bad idea Al, I think I'll join you," announced Scorpius, pushing himself onto his feat to follow.

Rose hurried after him and the three friends made their way to the castle doors. As they were approaching the castle the plane came around for yet another pass at the school. The three students paused on the front steps and turned to watch as the plane passed over head. They turned back to the school and were just about to enter the building when the front door burst open and a frantic Prof Sprout came rushing out. She paused a few steps bellow the group of Slytherins.

"Attention students!" she called placing her wand tip to her throat to increase her volume until it was booming, "return to the interior of the castle immediately. All will be explained this evening, but it is imperative that every student return to the interior of the building at this time without delay!"

After making her announcement she watched as the students streamed towards the doors and rushed after the stragglers to hurry them up. Al, Rose, and Scorpius exchanged significant looks and rushed to find Harry.

"I bet he's not in his office," declared Scorpius as they entered the building. His friends agreed so they detoured to their dungeon home to find the Marauder's Map.

They checked the map and were surprised that their father's foot prints were charted in a forbidden portion of the castle on the third floor. They examined the map twice to be sure they were reading it correctly and then decided to grab the invisibility cloak just in case. They scrambled out of the dungeon and off to the third floor.

The castle was crowded with all the students forbidden from going outside and noisy from all the gossip. Al and Rose were stopped multiple times from people in all different houses and asked what they knew. Everyone knew that they were related to Prof Potter and if any student knew anything it would be them. Unfortunately they had to disappoint, but promised to let people know things as soon as they found out. When the three friends left a main hallway for one that would lead to the forbidden wing on the third floor they suddenly found themselves void of prying eyes. The three students took this opportunity to disappear beneath the invisibility cloak.

"Why do you think this place is off limits?" hissed Al as soon as the proper silencing charms had been cast.

"I've no idea, it's never occurred to me to wonder about it," answered Scorpius with a shrug. The third floor was always off limits, his dad had told him it had been this way since even he was in school.

"Shh," hissed Rose as they approached a door. Despite the silencing charm a hush fell between the children as they alohamoraed their way past a strange wooden door.

Once through they were in a small round room that seemed to be furnished like a sitting room. The walls looked as though they'd been scratched by a beast years past, but now it was a very tame room. The elegant furniture seemed out of place against the harsh markings on the walls and floors, indicating a rather violent pass.

"Well, this doesn't seem forbidden," announced Rose, looking around confused.

"This is just an entrance," answered Al glancing at his map. His father seemed to be standing under a wall, indicating that the makers of the map had not known about a secret passage from this room.

"How do we get through?" asked Rose, glancing at the map in Al's hand.

"It doesn't say," he answered with a frown, "I don't think the makers knew about this passage."

"Let's look around," suggested Rose, slipping out from under the cloak.

Al and Scorpius followed. It didn't take long for them to find a small trap door beneath an exquisite oriental rug. The rug didn't want to be moved, but after a few creative spells the students managed peal it back long enough to squeak through the trap door.

They fell onto the devil's snare. Fortunately all three of them had paid attention in herbology and they made it through the plant without any trouble. The three friends crowded under the cloak again and stealthily crept along the passage the devil's snare had revealed to them. They entered a room that smelled strangely of troll, but it was more of a storage room. They remained under the cloak, but wandered around the room looking at everything gathered. It was a strange assortment of both muggle and wizard technology designed for spying and stealth. They were picking through the artifacts when one of the sneak-a-scopes began reacting to their presence. They quickly made their way to the next door at the other end of the hall.

This was another large room filled with muggle computers that had been touched by magic. The room had extremely high ceilings and although the computers were enormous and reached very high there was still a great deal of space above them that was filled with tablets and other small tech gadgets that had been enchanted to fly around above their heads. The three kids looked in awe at the tech meets magic room. As they stared the door in front of them opened and a knot of three wizards they did not recognize walked through the door. The students backed out of their way quickly and slipped through the door as one of the wizards summoned a tablet from the air.

Now the students were in a room with what looked like a checkerboard pattern floor, complete with line and column marks, but in the middle was an elegant meeting table. The room had quite a few witches and wizards in it as though a meeting had just been dissolved. Holding their breath under the cloak, despite the silencing spell the students crept closer to one of the groups of strangers and listened to the conversations.

"…students were on the grounds," a witch was saying with an argumentative tone.

"It doesn't matter, our wards will still be in effect," answered another strange witch.

"I must disagree. Our wards disguise the castle, not the students. Also, the way the wards work, if a muggles expected to see Hogwarts they would see it," answered an unknown wizard.

"What kind of information could be gathered from such a fast pass."

"Their technology is fast. After six passes the onboard computers would have ascertained enough information to make a detailed structural analysis of the school. The illusion charm is designed to fool human eyes, the computers would have no trouble seeing the school."

"Do you think Potter and that muggle are almost done in there," grumbled a witch, glancing at a door at the other end of the room.

The three friends didn't wait any longer and made their way to the afore mentioned door. They glanced around, ensuring that everyone was distracted by a conversation and then quietly went through the door. They found themselves in a strange closet like room with a stone arch at the other end. They could see a coliseum type room through the arch and inched towards this opening carefully.

They were standing in a grand stone room, circular and in the middle of the room was a strange computer floating in a blue field that was clearly magic. A muggle, Headmaster McGonagall, and most of their teachers, including Potter, were present.

The friends looked on in awe as Harry and the unknown muggle stepped into the blue field with the computer, the field expanded to encompass them and the muggle started to type at the computer. Harry concentrated and seemed to be changing the colors of the field. The other teachers reached their hands into the field and pulled out what looked to be screens made of the same substance as the field and started examining images, touching the images and changing them from time to time. The kids stalked closer and watched over Sprout's shoulder as she watched a 3D rendering of Hogwarts spinning on the screen in front of her. She reached forward and pinched the screen so it zoomed out to encompass the entire forbidden forest and then zoomed in again and could looked into the great hall. The walls were strangely see through, although the interior of the building was difficult to distinguish because so many lines crossed at those points.

"It's what we feared," announced McGonagall, a few minutes later as Potter and the muggle stepped out of the field and it shrunk back to just the suspended computer, "then were mapping out Hogwarts."

"What are we going to do about it?" asked Harry, he looked tired after whatever he'd been doing the field.

"The plan remains unchanged. Warn the students, but continue on. We must be careful though. Have you come up with anything on those technology wards?"

"I have not yet. The technology is so complicated I have a hard time isolating one common factor that would defend against everything," answered Prof Vanderhorn, a tall thin woman who taught charms after Flitwick's retirement a few years ago.

"We will return to the castle proper, the students will notice if we all skip lunch. Ryan, do you mind staying behind?" asked McGonagall, turning to the mysterious muggle in the room.

"Not at all," he answered, "I have a lot of data to go over."

The kids slipped out of the room behind the knot of professors and were about to slip away when they were stopped by McGonagall.

"Oh, Potter, Malfoy, and Weasley," she said calmly without even turning around, "Would you wait for me in my office. The password is toasterpuffins."

The three friends froze, and then Albus pulled off the cloak and the three looked up at their confused professors shame faced. Harry glared at the three and the other professor's face bore expressions that ranged from shocked to anger to even slight amusement in Vanderhorn's case.

"Yes ma'am," they grumbled in unison and trudged off to give the pass word to her gargoyle guardian.


	3. Chapter 3

_Author's Note: Now things get interesting. Question, should I put the Snape ghost I created for some of my one shots in this story?_

**War**

"How much trouble do you think we're in?" asked Scorpius as the three Slytherins trudged sullenly through the door to Headmaster McGonagall's office.

"At least your dad isn't a professor," grumbled Albus.

"We are so in for it," howled Rose in distress.

"Do you think they'll call my dad?"

"I know Uncle Harry will tell my mum and dad, I bet your dad will hear about it too Scorpius."

"I'm in so much trouble. I can't believe we got caught."

"What's this?" asked Al from across the room. Listening to his two best friends bemoan their fates was making him feel queasy and he'd wandered through the office looking at the magical gadgets to get his mind off of it.

"I dunno," answered Rose, curiously approaching.

"Don't break it. We don't need to be in anymore trouble," grumbled Scorpius also making his way to Scorpius' side.

"It looks like a television," muttered Al, ignoring Scorpius.

The three friends watched as scenes from a muggle government building flipped across a misty screen suspended above a strange lens. Rose recognized many of the locations. Hermione had a TV in their house and used it primarily to watch the news, particularly politics. Being a lawyer Hermione liked to stay on top of the latest bills. Hermione's legal focus was impoverish individuals in wizard courts, but she could hold her own in a muggle courtroom as well if she needed to. Rose told her friends what the buildings were, but without sound the students could only speculate what the muggles were talking about.

"What are the three of you doing here?" asked Snape's portrait from across the room.

The three students had been at Hogwarts long enough to have visited McGonagall's office before, for past transgressions, and had met Snape and a few other portraits previously. In the middle of the day, however, most portraits were off running errands so Snape's comment startled the three students, causing them to jump.

"Professor McGonagall sent us here," answered Al. He'd always gotten along well with Snape, which was rare for a student, even postmortem.

"Obviously," he drawled, "did she send you here for any particular reason?"

"We're not winning any good citizenship awards," he answered, resisting the nearly irresistible urge to fidget.

"I do not play guessing games."

"The third floor," grumbled Al.

"Why, pray tell, did you see fit to visit the third floor?" asked Snape, his mannerism were all serious, but underneath he was enjoying himself. He liked tormenting students.

"We wanted to ask my dad what was going on."

"And you just guessed he was on the third floor?"

"Well…we have this map…"

"Your father gave students his map?" asked Snape, slightly shocked. Sometimes Potter's idiocy was staggering.

"He didn't exactly _give_ it so much as mention it and leave it out in the open," explained Al, now unable to resist the urge to scuff his food against the floor.

"And you took it upon yourself to put it to good use?" asked Snape, raising his eyebrow in amusement.

Snape was about to continue the interrogation when McGonagall came sweeping into the room dramatically. She glanced at the scene and decided to ignore Snape, he could cause so much trouble for a portrait.

"Potter, Weasley, Malfoy, what do you have to say for yourselves?" she snapped, she really didn't have time for this.

"We saw Professor Potter rushing off in such a hurry we wanted to help," answered Scorpius. He nearly winced. He'd been trying to think up an excuse while Al talked with Snape and this was the best he could come up with. Lame.

"Really Mr. Malfoy? You wish for me to believe that in your rush to provide assistance you had the forethought to obtain Mr. Potter's invisibility cloak and enter the Inner Chamber during the most delicate point of an operation?"

"We didn't want to interrupt," offered Rose, catching on and trying to help Scorpius out.

"I do not have time for this nonsense," announced McGonagall, "Since none of you wish to share why you were in an off limits portion of the castle you will each receive two weeks of detention, and 50 points from Slytherin, each," they each winced as the punishments were pronounced, "and Weasley, Malfoy, I will be writing your parents," Scorpius went pale, "now-"

The three students believed they were being dismissed when McGonagall was interrupted by a loud siren from the strange mist image machine which was now flashing red. She completely forgot about the students in her presence and rushed to the machine. She waved her hand through the mist and suddenly the room was filled with sound.

"We have official word from Parliament, war has been declared," announced a breathless reporter from the mist, "The Prime Minister has declared he will rid the world of the wizard curse. We're cutting to his speech live."

"My friends!" called a portly old man with a drooping walrus mustache and a sharp business suit that the students recognized as the muggle Prime Minister Houghton, "The time has come for us to stand for what is precious. We must protect our children from the evil that is among us. We now know our enemy. We must eliminate all those who would sell their soul to darkness to obtain these powers called magic. We must destroy them, before they destroy us!"

"Severus," murmured McGonagall tightly, as the Prime Minister paused for applause, "gather the professors, send them here, tell them what has happened."

Snape nodded and disappeared from his portrait. The students watched the screen their eye's bulging. They listened to the rest of the speech before McGonagall realized they were still in her office.

"You three, wait just outside the door," she ordered wearily as her professors began to file into the room, somber expressions on every face.

The three students numbly walked out the door and sat on the steps, waiting. The professors seemed to be in the office for an eternity. An hour past and the three Slytherins waited for their headmaster to return her attention to them. At first they sat in shock at the top of the steps, but then the shock wore off and they began to discuss what they'd heard.

"I guess we know what all those weird laws were for now," murmured Scorpius.

"I hope grandma and grandpa Granger are ok," worried Rose, not listening to her friend.

"Do you think they'll close Hogwarts?" asked Al, gaining both his friend's attention.

"Why would they do that?" asked Scorpius in shock.

"If we're at war, wouldn't it make sense for the muggles to attack concentrations of witches and wizards? It would make sense to close Hogwarts so we'd be more spread out and harder to target," explained Al.

"Muggles can't see Hogwarts," answered Rose, her mother had quoted enough _Hogwarts: A History_ throughout her childhood that she was full of fun facts.

"No, but their planes can. You saw the blue prints dad found on their computers," answered Al, referring to the hacking job they'd eavesdropped on which had landed them in McGonagall's office in the first place.

"They'd never close Hogwarts."

"They almost did when the Chamber was opened."

The kids continued these arguments until the office door behind them opened and their professors filed out again, each hurrying off to complete various tasks. Harry looked wearily down at the three children and motioned for them to join him in the headmaster's office once all the other professors had left him and McGonagall alone.

"Are they going to close Hogwarts?" blurted out Rose.

"No, no one's closing Hogwarts," Harry reassured his niece, "sit down."

The three sat.

"Have a chocolate."

They each took a piece of chocolate.

"Harry, I'll leave you to handle this," murmured McGonagall as she too swept out of her office.

"Alright kids," muttered Harry, running his hand through his already disheveled hair, "you saw some things you weren't supposed to see today. You weren't meant to hear that speech by the Prime Minister. We're going to explain the current situation to the rest of the school at an assembly this evening. I want you guys to keep this to yourself until then. Can you do that?"

"Yes sir," the three friends answered in unison.

"Alright," said Harry awkwardly, "get out of here."

The three friends leapt to their feet and rushed out of the office. They didn't slow down until they were in the dungeons. Al vaguely wondered why he hadn't had his invisibility cloak confiscated, but he figured the professors were too preoccupied to worry about something trivial like his cloak. The three friends silently mulled over the discovery they'd made. They found themselves standing in front of the entrance to their common room when they realized they didn't want to be around other people.

"Too bad we can't go outside," grumbled Scorpius.

"Astronomy tower?" suggested Rose.

The other two nodded their agreement. The three turned and trudged up to the tower. They were in such a state of shock it seemed like no time had passed before they were headed to dinner.

"Attention students," called McGonagall, standing at the head table, "there has been a major development in muggle and wizard relations. The muggles in the UK have formally declared war against the wizarding world," she paused as the hall erupted in confused chatter, before clearing her throat for silence again, "because of this there are some precautions Hogwarts will be taking to ensure the safety of our students in these difficult times."

Professor McGonagall went on to explain lock down drills and illustrate the proper procedure in the event that the school would be attacked by muggles. She then invited any student who had confusing feelings about the war to talk with any of the faculty. Al, Scorpius, and Rose listened carefully. They weren't in shock like most of their peers. The assembly was long. The students practiced the lock down procedures, and most students headed straight to bed as soon as they were permitted to return to their dorms.

A few days later and the effects of the war could already be felt. The students were never allowed onto the grounds. The paper was full of attacks by muggles on wizards.

"This is terrible," murmured Draco, he had long abandoned his breakfast in favor of the daily prophet.

"What is it?" asked Rose, looking up for her jam and toast.

"The muggles found the Leaky Caldrons. The raided it and arrested nearly fifty people. They're being held in huge warded prison. They then blasted their way into Diagon Ally where they used fire and machine guns to destroy most of the stores. They set Olivander's on fire and when the wands caught fire they exploded. The explotion took out both shops on either side of Olivander's, killing twenty people, including Olivander himself.

It seems wizard wards do very little to hold out muggles."

"That's terrible," murmured Al, stabbing a slab of ham on his plate, he suddenly found that he had lost his appetite.

"How could they do something like this!" exclaimed Rose, anger tingling in the air around her.

"I don't know, but if they keep going through our wards like they're not there this is going to be a very short war," answered Scorpius, "we can't do anything against their technology."

The three friends continued to discuss the horrible state of the world as they walked back to their common room. It was the week end and they were going to collect their homework and try to find a quite place to work. They had just entered the dungeons when they heard a rumbling like thunder above them. The students in the hall were looking around in confusion when Professor McGonagall's voice filtered through the halls without her present.

"Students this is a lockdown. This is not a drill. Commence with lockdown procedures. Students this is a lock down. This is not a drill. Commence with lockdown procedures," repeated the disembodied voice calmly but firmly.

The students all rushed towards doorways and other stable points in the architecture. The students in the dungeons scrambled towards the first floor. Most of the Slytherin house was in the dungeons so this wild rush for safer ground cause a back up in the hallway.

Five floors above Al, Rose, and Scorpius, James was running down the hall towards his sister. He knew it was his job to protect her. He wanted to find Albus also, but he was farther away.

"Lilly!" he shouted, catching his sister's attention.

"James!" she called back, rushing towards her older brother.

Just as she reached him a bomb crashed through the ceiling on the other end of the hall. The two siblings held onto each other until the shock waves died down.

"Lilly, we need to get everyone out of the school," stated James, looking his sister in the eyes.

"How?"

"There's a mirror at the end of the hallway. It opens to a passage to Hogsmead. We need to get as many people through there as possible."

"We should be able to reach the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw towers from here," answered Lilly, gulping and nodding nervously.

"Good, I don't know how to get everyone to come here though," answered James, casting around for an idea.

Just as he was considering summoning his broom and flying through all the corridors telling people to evacuate McGonagall's voice filled the halls again.

"Students, due to structural damage done by the muggle bombs we must ask you to evacuate to Hogsmead. Proceed to the school gates in an orderly fashion."

James grinned as her message repeated. Perfect.

"Lil', you stay here and tell everyone to take this short cut," ordered James as he started to run towards the stares, "I want to go find Albus."

Lilly nodded firmly. As James rushed away students began pouring into the hall.

"This way to Hogsmead!" she called, ushering the students to the passage. The students were so confused they didn't even question the first year taking them through a strange passage.

There were screams in the dungeons as the impact from the bombs higher up caused chunks of the ceiling to fall on the students.

"Aresto Momentum!" bellowed Albus, pointing his wand at a chunk of ceiling falling on Rose who was slightly in front of him.

"Depulso!" shouted Scorpius, preventing a large rock from falling on him and Albus.

"We've got to get out of here!" shouted Albus, just as McGonagall's voice filled the hall, echoing his conclusion.

The entirety of Slytherin house surged for the one exist from the dungeons, but between the number of students and the falling rocks the halls grew clogged and getting out was slow going. Just as they were forming an orderly escape another explosion rocked the castle and the dungeons began to collapse in earnest.

Al, Scorpius, and Rose had been able to see the exit to the dungeons when the ceiling collapsed, trapping almost all the Slytherins in the dungeons.

"Use bombarda!" shouted someone from the back.

"No don't!" shouted another students, "if you shift the rubble you might bring down the section of ceiling above us!"

"ALBUS SEVEROUS!" bellowed James from the other side of the rubble.

"I'm here, James," called Albus, using Sonorus to amplify his voice.

Can you blast your way out?" asked James, now also using Sonorus rather than relying on his copious hot air for volume.

"We're worried the rest of the hall will collapse if we use Bombarda," answered Al.

"You use bombarda," called James after a pause, "while I use Wingardium Leviosa to hold up the rubble."

"Alright."

"Ready?"

"Yes. NOW!"

The two brothers cast their spells at the same time. Albus neatly blasted away all the rubble and, although a few small stones fell, James held up the remaining rubble.

"Hurry!" called James, already sweating from the effort of holding up the ceiling.

"Wingardium Leviosa," called Albus, helping his brother hold up the ceiling. Scorpius followed suit and Rose was about to help as well but the boys told her to help make sure everyone got to Hogsmead. She nodded and lead her house to safety. It took only a few moments for the Slytherins to evacuate the dungeons. As soon as everyone was out the three boys dropped the rubble they'd been suspending and rushed after the other students.

When they reached the grounds it was in shambles. Debris littered the ground, but the planes didn't seem to be overhead so that was a relief. Rose had hung back to ensure that everyone made it out. Her cousins and friend rushed up to her and they all raced towards the gates together.

When they reached the main street of Hogsmead professors were waiting for them.

"Hufflepuff in the Three Broomsticks, Ravenclaw in Tomes and Scrolls, Slytherin in Honeydukes, and Gryffindor in Hog's Head." Called McGonagall's disembodied voice through the streets, repeating her message constantly.

"Are these all the students from the dungeons?" asked a worried Madam Pomfrey, rushing over and examining the students who had been hit by falling chunks of ceiling.

"Yes ma'am," answered James, breathless from running across the grounds.

"What were you doing in the dungeons?" she asked, turning to the only Gryffindor in the group.

"I had to go looking for my brother," answered James sheepishly.

She gave him a withering look before returning to the injured students. She ushered the more grievously injured parties to Dogweed and Deathcaps where she'd set up a makeshift infirmary. The other students were sent to the shop that housed their respective house.

"James! Albus! Rose!" called Harry who had just come around the corner. The children ran to embrace their father and uncle, "Scorpius, you all made it out alright!"

Harry hugged all four children close to him. He had grown quite fond of Scorpius. Even though they weren't related by blood, the boy was so close to his Albus and Rose he'd become like another son.

"We're find dad," muttered Al, slightly embarrassed, as he pushed himself out of his father's embrace.

After a tearful reunion Harry pulled himself together and sent the children to the buildings where their houses were being collected. The rest of Slytherin had already made its way to Honeydukes and the Gryffindors had all found their way to Hog's Head long ago. Harry was rushing off to attend to his other duties when the sounds of a muggle helicopter filled the air. Harry spun around and stared as ropes unfurled from the hovering machine just above the three children he'd just sent to Honeydukes.

Rose, Scorpius, and Albus looked up, saw the helicopter, and tried to run for the nearest building. Harry and James turned on their heels and ran towards the three Slytherins, but none of them were fast enough. Before the trio could get inside a building there were muggles standing around them with guns. The muggles were so heavily armored the students couldn't see anything but bullet proof vests and shiny helmets with goggles. They couldn't even tell if they were male or female.

The muggles threatened the three children with large guns to prevent the other wizards from rushing to their aid. They quickly strapped the three children into harnesses and raised them to the waiting helicopter above. Harry watched helplessly as the flying contraption speed away with three of the most important people in his life.


	4. Chapter 4

_Author's Note: I tried to put a bit of action in here, but there was a lot of chit chat too. I thought about putting Snape in, but it felt too stilted so I left him out. Maybe next time._

**Plan A**

"No way in bloody hell," announced Ron, "I am NOT working with him."

"Well then, I guess you're just going to have to stay home and wait for us to bring the kids home without your help," snapped Hermione, "because he is allowed to help if he so chooses."

"I can't believe you're on his side! It's bad enough that his little devil spawn is corrupting our daughter."

"Rose does a fine enough job corrupting herself," answered Hermione with a glare, "are you coming."

"Fine," growled Ron, "but if he says one thing out of line-"

"You'll keep your head and respond in a mature, civil manner," cut off Hermione, giving him the look.

"Why did it have to be Malfoy!" moaned Ron, but he agreed and the two worried parents apparated to the Hogwarts gate.

"Harry!" exclaimed Hermione, running up and embracing her friend.

"Hermione, Ron, I'm glad you guys are here. Everyone else is already in the Inner Chamber."

"We would have gotten here sooner, but we had to have a little chat about maturity and civility," said Hermione, she didn't seem amused.

Despite the dour situation Harry found himself repressing a smile, the mental image was too much, "well, it's good you guys are here now, come on."

"That doesn't make any sense," Draco was saying as Ron, Hermione, and Harry walked through the door. Astoria was hovering behind her husband as he was discussing the situation rather animatedly with Ginny.

"Let's get organized," announced Hermione, after taking in the scene and deciding to take charge. She flicked her wand and conjured a dry erase board in the middle of the room, "first question is what do we know?"

"We know that they were abducted during a raid on Hogwarts, we know almost nothing else," answered Harry, "we don't even know why they were taken."

"Theories of motivation?"

"Money," answered Draco immediately.

"How the bloody hell are they going to get money from third years?" demanded Ron, ignoring his wife's 'play nice' glare.

"They knew the children had parents who would pay anything to get them back," answered Draco, glaring at Ron.

"Money is always a factor," answered Hermione, flicking her wand at the dry erase board where the word money appeared under a header that read 'motivation', "but there is likely more to it. The muggle army has many avenues to secure funds that are far less costly than abducting children for ransom."

"To get something else from us, the parents, but I don't know what they could want," answered Harry.

"What do we have that the muggles might want? They've made it quite clear that they are not interested in magic," pondered Hermione.

A few other ideas of motivation were brought up and thrown onto the board. Hermione minimized this list and sent it to the top corner of her board. They were looking at a map of Britain, trying to narrow down where the children might be, when Hermione's phone rang.

"I thought muggle technology didn't work here," commented Ron.

"You'd be amazed what a few simple charms will do," murmured Hermione absentmindedly as she fished her phone out of her pocket. She glanced at the screen and frowned, "I don't recognized this number."

"Hello?"

"Who is this."

"What gives you the right to-"

"If you think that you are sorely mistaken."

"I am not interested in your-"

"How long?"

"You do that," growled Hermione, hanging up her phone.

"What was that?" asked Harry.

"That would be the answer to our first question," grumbled Hermione, pulling the motivation list back to the larger portion of the board and minimizing the map, "That was the muggle government. They suggested that if we want to see our children again I should report to London."

"Why you?" asked Draco, receiving a glare from Ron.

"Apparently they don't like the idea of a witch who graduated in the top of her class at Cambridge being at large in the wizard world," she answered, clearly not pleased.

"They abducted our child because you scored highly at a muggle University?" asked Draco, clearly not believing she was telling everything.

"Well, I did focus on international relations, and I managed to publish a few pieces that have become fairly well known in the field," she answered, "even though I spend most of my time as a lawyer in the wizarding world I am fairly well versed in muggle law as well. I've taken many case of wizards that have run afoul of muggle law and had to appear in muggle court.

"So in other words, she scares them," added Harry, they really didn't have time for a lesson in muggle studies.

"Why would they purposefully try to anger someone whom they are afraid of? If they're afraid of you then you must have connections that could be of use," pointed out Draco, completely ignoring Ron.

"It's a power play. They want to prove that I don't have friends in high enough places, so I should be good, and do as they wish. I do believe they may have underestimated my friends though," answered Hermione thoughtfully before returning her attention to her phone, "fortunately I also happen to have a function on my phone that allows me to track a call."

After a few moments of Hermione fiddling with her phone she pulled the map of Britain back to fill the board.

"The call came from here," announced Hermione, jabbing an address a bit outside of London, "But we can't be sure the call came from the same place that the children are being held. I think we should pay a cousin of mine a visit."

"Not Honoria," groaned Ron.

"She's one of my favorite cousins," snapped Hermione, sometimes Ron could be extremely unreasonable.

"She's just so," Ron paused, looking for the right word, "purebloodish."

"Ron, you are such an idiot," snapped Hermione, "we need her help."

"Who is this?" asked Harry.

"My cousin, Honoria Winchester, we went to school together until I started at Hogwarts and she went to the best muggle school her parents could find. She's always been quite brilliant. She's been involved in politics since graduating from Cambridge. Married well, she is fairly ensconced in the upper class, but she and I have been friends since before we can remember," answered Hermione quickly, "and if we floo to her place we'll be able to make our plans much more easily from there."

"I thought you said she's a muggle," said Draco, confused.

"She is, I had her home added to the floo network so the kids could visit her without needing to side along apparate."

"If she'll be a help, let's go," answered Harry.

The three made their way to Harry's office. Hermione instructed them to floo to 'Winchester Estates'. Astoria returned to Malfoy Manner to attend to the wealth of Malfoy contacts that could be of use and Ginny left for the Burrow to bring Mr. and Mrs. Weasley up to date. Ginny was planning on staying at Hogwarts to help the teachers in Harry's absence. After Ginny and Astoria disappeared through the fire Hermione, Harry, Ron, and Draco flooed to Honoria's home.

"Good evening Mrs. Weasley, and guests, may I take your coats?" inquired a calm butler as soon as they'd brushed the ashes from the floo off their clothes.

"Why thank you Charles," said Hermione as she pulled off a fall jacket she'd been wearing. The other's followed suit and gave their jackets to the butler.

"Wow," breathed Harry, looking around, "this is quite a house."

Even Draco was impressed by the upper class charm of the house. Although he would be loathed to admit it, this house rivaled the homes of some purebloods he knew.

"Hermione!" greeted a woman, rushing into the room and embracing Hermione.

"Everyone, this is Honoria," said Hermione as her cousin released her, "Honoria, this is Harry and Draco."

"A pleasure to meet you," she greeted the guests, shaking their hand. The picture of class.

Honoria looked very similar to Hermione, although her hair was silky smooth and had gentle curls to it, rather than the frizzy mess that Hermione had taken to wrestling into a not on the back of her head every morning. Her eyes were sharper and smile seemed to be hiding something. Seeing the two next to each other it seemed like they belonged together. They seemed like two sides to the same coin. Draco couldn't help but feel slightly better about their chances with this strange muggle on their side. A feeling he'd never had about a muggle ever, it was quite strange.

"How are you Mimi?" asked Honoria, using Hermione's childhood nickname, "I take it you didn't bring your friends here for a social call."

"Oh Honoria, it's just awful," began Hermione. She quickly explained what was going on.

"I had heard rumors of something like this," murmured Honoria, leaning forward in her chair. Everyone had found chairs in the living room around the fire while Hermione had explained the situation, "but I didn't not realize how much truth was to it or what children were involved. They must be out of their minds to mess with you though."

"Why is that?" asked Draco, leaning forward. It sounded like they had an unexpected advantage.

"Because, Hermione has friends in high places," she answered.

"So I've been told," murmured Draco.

"What do we do?" asked Ron.

"First thing is to determine what department abducted the children."

The adults discussed what they knew. Hermione showed her cousin where, on the map, the call had come from. While they talked they formulated a plan. Meanwhile just outside of London the children were just waking up.

"What's going on?" asked Rose groggily.

"I'm not sure," answered Scorpius, "can you see anything?"

"No, where are you?"

"Right here."

"No? Really?"

"Follow my voice Ms Sarcasm."

"Oh, there you are," exclaimed Rose.

"No need to poke my eye out," complained Scorpius, "where's Albus?"

"I dunno, ALBUS!" called Rose, crawling away from Scorpius, "AlBUS SEVERUS!"

"What's going on?" asked Al a few moments later as he woke up.

"No idea," answered Rose.

"Why is it so dark?"

"No idea."

"We're in trouble," answered Scorpius.

"Let's see if we can find our way out of here," suggested Rose.

The three friends felt around the room they were in, which turned out to be more of a crate. The metal walls were close together although the cell seemed to be fairly long. They managed to find a few air holes, but no exit. The ceiling was low enough that when they stood on their feat they could not extend their arms entirely above their heads.

"This does not bode well," commented Albus.

Just as the words left his mouth the entire room seemed to move. The children could hear the faint beeping of a truck backing up as the entire room was lifted into he air.

"What the, hell's going on?" exclaimed Rose as she was thrown from her feet.

"I think we're in a modified muggle shipping crate," answered Albus, grunting as his cousin landed on his stomach and they both slid into Scorpius.

"What," asked Scorpius, shoving his two friends unceremoniously off of himself, "is a shipping crate."

"I'm not sure, but I would think it's a crate in which things are shipped," answered Rose, sarcasm dripping from her every word.

"No way," sneered Scorpius into the darkness.

All the friendly bickering came to a halt as the doors at the far end of the crate were opened, allowing a bright light to shine through. The three students quickly climbed out of the crate and found themselves in a large round room with three beds, three desks, and three strange notches in the wall that seemed to have food in them.

"Um…this is…different," commented Albus as the three Slytherins climbed out of the shipping container.

As the three children moved away from the contain and into the room the container suddenly swung away leaving a gaping hole in the wall many stories high for a few seconds before a garage like door slammed down, closing off the opening.

"Hello Granger child and friends," called a disembodied voice.

"Granger child?" asked Scorpius.

"My mom's maiden name," whispered Rose.

"You are in a magic free environment," continued the voice, as though the children hadn't spoken, "you will be unable to use magic to affect your escape. There is no use in trying. All your needs will be provided. If you desire anything you need only voice it and it will be provided to you, within reason. Do you have any questions at the present time?"

"Where are we?" asked Scorpius.

"In a government compound."

"Where on a map are we?"

"That information is classified."

"If we're so secure why can't you tell us where we are?" needled Scorpius.

"I can't tell you because the information is classified."

"But if you-"

"Scorpius, it's a computer," whispered Albus, cutting his friend off, "it probably doesn't know where we are. You can't argue the information out of it if it's programmed not to tell."

While the three children looked around the room apprehensively their parents were making great progress in their planning.

"I can't believe you think we'll be able to just walk in and tell them to give us the children back at it will work," complained Draco, this was beginning to sound entirely too much like a Gryffindor plan to suit his preferences.

"If we play our cards well and drop the right names we should be able to do just that," answered Honoria, a dangerous glint in her eyes.

"How do you know what cards to play and what names to drop again?" asked Ron, he'd been thoroughly confused by the Slytherinesque plan that involved much manipulation and seemed to subtle to work.

"We know that the address what sub department is holding the kids. My uncle in law happens to invest a very large amount of money in that particular sub department. If we claim to be there in his stead to evaluate the state of his investment we'll be able to do whatever we want. I have the ID necessary to claim his blessing. It should be pretty easy," answered Honoria, completely dismissing the hours of work that had gone into their plan.

"Well, let's get too it," announced Harry, he'd adopted the roll of pushing the group right along. If it weren't for him they'd never do anything but talk about what they should do.

About an hour later they were walking through what looked like an office building, but was actually a government headquarter. Honoria's ID had worked like a charm. After a quarter of an hour of thinly veiled threats and implication Honoria had them touring the compound like they owned the place. There tour guide was talking quickly as though he was extremely nervous. Honoria did not ease the young intern's nerves. She would snap questions at him and glare at him until he produced a satisfactory answer. Ron thought it seemed quite rude of her until he realized that her distraction was allowing Draco, Hermione, and himself to look around without being called out for being too nosey.

"And th-this is the remote headquarters for our biggest project at the moment," stammered the intern, gesturing awkwardly at an unassuming door.

"We'll take a look inside," snapped Honoria.

"It's, um, classified top secret," he murmured, whipping his sweaty palms on his slacks, "d-do you have clearance?"

"I had better," shot Honoria imperiously, "there should be no secrets from a dedicated investor."

"I, uh, guess there would be no harm in you just stepping inside for a moment. The, um, majority of the project takes place at another site, north of London."

The four adults followed the trembling intern into the room and found themselves in a room full of about six cubicals and a large conference table. On the wall above the conference table was a large flat screen tv with Scorpius, Rose, and Albus in a strange round room. Hermione gasped and began furiously pointing her wand at things in the room while keeping it hidden under her clothes. She'd rigged it to store information on a small hard drive, also concealed in her clothes with a silent incantation.

"What is going one here!" demanded a portly man who seemed outraged by the intrusion.

"Th-these are people representing one of our biggest investors," stammered the intern.

"I don't care if they represent the bloody Prime Minister! This is top secret, they are not allowed in here!"

"Excuse me?" asked Honoria, apparently quite offended by the man.

"You heard me young lady."

"My uncle will not stand for this disrespect," exclaimed Honoria, putting on a front of pure anger, "I will be filing a most unfavorable report!"

The four turned and rushed out of the room and made their way towards the exit of the building. The intern tagged along behind them. Trying anything he could think of to try to make them change their minds. They hurried off the compound, leaving the intern in the dust.

"Did you get it?" whispered Honoria as soon as they were a decent distance from the building.

"Yes," answered Hermione with a grin.


	5. Chapter 5

_Author's Note: Another chapter, now we're getting a bit action._

**Overheard**

"This is such a stupid idea," hissed Rose as the three kids crawled through the narrow piping.

"I'm not the genius that come up with it," answered Scorpius, glaring ahead of him at Albus' foot, the only part of his friend he could see.

"Be quiet," answered Al.

The three friends had figured out how to escape their escape proof prison. It hadn't taken as long for them to figure it out as they had expected it would.

"There has got to be a way out of her," Albus had muttered, looking around the white room.

Rose had thrown various spells at the walls surrounding them, but it didn't take long for them to decide the room was really magic proof. Unfortunately for their captors they were all Slytherin and they were not generally used to being defeated. As soon as it was clear that magic wouldn't work they'd begun searching for a way out the muggle way, with a little indirect magic.

The three friends had spread out and scoured every inch of wall for a way out. They found the cameras and mikes and quietly noted their location, but the walls seemed fairly sturdy. The only place they sensed weakness was around the machines that dispensed their food. The three retreated to a corner farthest from the mikes and whispered to each other under the cover Rose's muffliato.

"There is no way out," declared Scorpius quietly.

"There must be, there's a way in," answered Albus.

"A way in that is thoroughly sealed off," answered Rose, glancing at the solid door that had descended over the opening they'd come in through.

"What about the food? That's getting in somehow."

"Mom watches a muggle show where the food just appears in holes in the wall like that. There's no need to actually put the food in the room, it just materializes," answered Rose.

"Are you talking about Star Trek?" asked Albus dubiously.

"I dunno, they are in space."

"That is fiction," answered Albus impatiently, resisting the urge to face palm. Many wizards born and breed in the wizard world didn't know what muggle technology was real and what was fiction, but Rose should have known better.

"So the food has to come in through an opening," stated Scorpius, trying to bring his friends back on topic, "but how does that help us?"

"What if the opening is big enough for us to use as an exit?" suggested Al.

"What if we get stuck?"

"It can't be too long a passage; muggles would have a difficult time transporting a large and delicate object such as a meal, a long distance without damaging it. Have you ever sent a package through the muggle post?"

"How do we get to this mysterious passage if we can't use our magic to get through the wall?" asked Rose, leaning forward.

"I have an idea for that too," answered Albus, Rose and Scorpius smiled, they knew he would, "we can use magic on things that aren't from this room. If we couldn't then the muffliato wouldn't be working. We can transfigure something like a quill or pencil into a crowbar and pull the wall apart the muggle way. We can split up and each take one of the wall interfaces. If we pry them all off it might take them longer to find us in the end."

After ironing out the details, and explaining to Rose and Scorpius what a crowbar is, the three were ready to begin their big escape. Scorpius filled the room with a dense fog. A jinx his father had taught him. They weren't sure how long the fog would last, Scorpius claimed it could last as long as a couple hours so long as a breeze didn't blow it away.

Each child rushed up to a wall food dispenser. As they ran they transfigured a quill, or a bobby pin in Rose's case, into a crowbar. They each ripped the cover off the wall mounted food dispenser. Scorpius found it surprisingly easy to rip the segment off the wall. The muggles must have spent so much time and money on magic proofing the room that they'd forgotten to defend against the brute force method of escape. After a few good tugs the thin cover crumpled and pulled away from the wall. Behind the wall was a wide passage that Scorpius thought he could fit through if he needed to, although he didn't really want to. He got a good grip on his crow bar and banged in around inside the passage to make it look like someone had tried to crawl through it in a hurry. Under the cover of the muffliato he could make as much noise as he needed. He even ripped off a small corner of cloth from his school robes and stuck it on a sharp corner of metal at the entrance to the small opening. Satisfied with his work he turned tail and ran to where he knew Rose was working.

When he approached her he found that she too had managed to break through and was just finishing up the aesthetic treatment. As she pulled her head out of the passage a bit of her hair caught on the rim of the passage and pulled out of her head.

"Ow!"

"Leave it," advised Scorpius, "it looks more realistic."

The two nodded and ran to Scorpius who already had finished his work, and was waiting for them, seemingly impatiently.

"Are you sure this will work?" asked Scorpius. Now that he was looking at a passage that he would actually have to crawly through, he began to doubt that he would actually fit.

"It's the only way-," answered Scorpius. He was cut off by the sound of a machine powering up. It sounded like an air conditioning system.

"What is that!" exclaimed Rose.

"It's a ventilation system!" declared Albus after a moment of listening, "They're trying to suck all the fog out of here! Hurry, follow me!"

Without another word Albus dove into the tunnel, losing a scrap of cloth along the way. Scorpius and Rose followed without hesitation. The three friends scrambled through the narrow passage, whispering their complaints until Albus hushed them, claiming that they'd be caught if his friends weren't more quiet.

It turned out Albus had been right, the passage was very short. They immerged in a cafeteria after only a few moments. The three friends hurriedly helped each other out of the passage and hurried off towards the nearest cover they could find. They'd just managed to dive behind a stack of crates when an earsplitting alarm went off.

"I think they may have noticed our disappearance," whispered Scorpius.

"No, really?" asked Rose, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Do you guys even know what quiet means?" hissed Albus.

The three friends fell silent for a few moments.

"But seriously Al, now what?" asked Rose.

"We wait for an opportunity," answered Albus.

"This is where your plan ends?" hissed Scorpius.

"Hey! I'm not the only one here with a brain. One of you guys could come up with the next step in our plan!"

"Let's use those," said Rose, interrupting her arguing friends and pointing to some fancy looking carts.

"Break out in the serving carts?" asked Albus.

"It's better than waiting here for someone to find us."

A few moments later the three Slytherins were crushed together, hidden behind the curtain of a serving cart. The three sat in nervous silence for a good hour and a half. They listened nervously as the sounds of people searching for them filtered in and out of the room. They heard the voices shouting down the hall way, but eventually it quieted. They each took turns in the best seat where they could stretch out their legs. They conversed as little as possible. Eventually the alarm was silenced and suddenly they heard voices flooding into the room.

"Do you think they came through this way?" asked a nervous sounding voice.

"They wouldn't let us in here if it was dangerous," answered a sure sounding voice.

"I guess you're right."

"I always am. Now come on the big wigs will be furious if their dinner is any more late."

"A truly terrifying thought."

A few moments later the three escapees felt their cart jerk forward and push out of the kitchen. The two servers chatted as they pushed the cart, stopping occasionally to ask friends if they'd heard any more about the escaped children. Soon enough they made their way into another room that was filled with low hushed voices.

"Ah, I see that lunch has _finally_ arrived," announced an authoritative voice.

"Yes sir, we're very sorry, but we were forced to evacuate, and-"

"Yes, yes, very well, just leave the food and get out of here. We're in the middle of something very important."

There was some quiet as the servers left and the occupants of the room obtained their preferred lunch dishes. Then the conversation picked up again. The children were glaring at each other, trying to silently assign blame for their new situation which was worse than the last one when they heard what the conversation outside the serving cart was about and immediately forgot their squabbling in favor of listen intently.

"They don't know the technology exists."

"What if they do? If they knew then it would be useless."

"The only people who know are in this room."

"They could find the technology without being told. It's just sitting there in orbit."

"How are the witches going to find that? They don't exactly have a space program."

"Well we've seen that the tech doesn't even really work."

"The children only escaped because we hired inept engineers in the design phase. If the entire world is magic proof the witches will be at our feet."

"The satellite will affect all of their haunts?"

"Yes, they will be at our mercy."

"But if they find out they could set up defenses. Their holdings underground, like that bank, or their school's dungeons will still be safe. If they put enough magical artifacts down their they will still be able to stand against us."

"They will not find out, they will never suspect they are so vulnerable."

The children exchanged terrified looks. They weren't hostages, they were test subjects. The magic free room, somehow the muggles were going to extend the effects to the entire world. They were right. They would completely cripple the wizarding world if they did this, but if they could warn the ministry maybe they could prevent this horrible thing from happening.

Scorpius was looking nervously at Albus when his foot slipped, releasing an ear splitting screech as he dragged a small scrap of metal against the metal shelf that the children were resting on. There was silence for a moment, then the three were being held by their collars, wands ripped from their hands and innocent expressions plastered on their faces. They were caught.


End file.
